Ornamentation



Jan. 14, 1936. A. F. REILLY 1 ORNAMENTATION' Filed March 11, 1955Patented M14, 1936 UNITED STATES' PATENT OFFICE- to Evans Case Company,

North Attleboro,

Masa, a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 11, 1935, SerialNo. 10,551

4 Claims.

The invention is adapted to produce ornamentation upon metal whether inthe form of sheets, plates, strips, completed devices or parts ofdevices. Throughout this description and the 5 claims the term, article,will beused to indicate a completed device oran element thereofpartially or wholly formed or a plate, sheet or strip of metal.

It is frequently desired to form an article of a lo cheaper orbase metalwhich is not in itself beautiful in appearance and which may not retainits finish. In order to'render such an article more beautiful and moresatisfactory for use and sale it may be suitably covered with aprotecting 25 coatto suitably ornament it. This is particularly true ofsuch devices as compacts, cigarette cases, lighters, vanities, toiletarticles and other devices of personal adornment or use. The presentinvention is not, however, confined to such uses.

In carrying out the invention an article of metal may be provided with achromium coat previously electroplated in any suitable manner. It may bedesired to associate with the chromium coating or a part thereof afigure or ornamental design of a contrasting color. For this purpose acoating of gold is especially desirable. Gold may be electroplatedordinarily upon the base metal of the article but gold may not beelectroplated upon the chromium plated surface. A pattern, form orfigure may be cut into and through the chromium plate to expose the basemetal. In order to obtain a clean cut, definite outline to the figure ordesign so applied the chromium plate may be cut by mechanical means suchas a chisel-like cutting device which may be held in the hand or may beplaced in a suitable lathe or similar machine. The form of the patternor design cut may be determined by the movement of the hand or cuttingtool which if desired may be controlled by a fixed pattern devlcein amanner known in the art. Such a mechanical cut will at least go throughthe chromium plate so as to entirely expose the base at the cutportions. The chromium plate of course is very thin, being measured inthousandths of an inch and the cutting tool may cut beyond the chromiumplate and cut into the base metal.

This may be an advantage in that it may provide a sure and clean surfacefor the contrasting coating. Such coating also maybe an advantage inthat it may provide a somewhat roughened surface which may aid inproducing the pleasing efiect desired by irregular reflection of light.when the chromium coated article. has been cut with the desired designor ornament, it may without further treatment be placed in anelectrolytic bath carrying gold and there may be pro.- duced anelectroplate of gold on the design or cut portions of the exposed base.Since the gold will 5 not be deposited from the electrolytic bath on thechromium because of the inherent character of the chromium itself it isnot necessary to apply a protective coating or resist to the chromiumplated portion of the article or to any other portion of the article.

The direction and arrangement of the cut lines may vary within widelimits to produce desired effects. The cut lines may for instance bestraight and substantially in contact with each other and parallel toeach other so that no chromium plating is exposed between the cut lines.This will eventually produce a more or less dull, solid gold effect atthe cut portion. The lines may be straight or curved or may turn atangles or a single line may partake of two or more of these charactersand the lines may be associated with each other in such a way that thechromium plate is left exposed and not mutilated by the I adjacent linesor portions thereof. By properly choosing lines and associating themtogether on. an article an embroidered or tapestry-like efiect may beproduced to which the reflected light may give an appearance of raisedor curved portions.

By removing the chromium plate by'means of a mechanical cutter a cleandefinite outline to the cut or the design may be produced. When it isdesired to keep the outline clear but giving a dulled or roughenedeffect to the design as a whole the cuts may be left rough in anysuitable way such as by using a cutting tool having a more or less dullor broken edge. This may allow the gold plate to set on the slightlyroughened metal and produce a pleasing dull efiect.

It may be possible to allow the cut article to remain in theelectrolytic bath long enough to deposit in the cuts a layer of goldsubstantially thick enough to make a substantially smooth surface on thearticle. This will contemplate bring- 5 ing the surface of the goldplate to substantially the level of the chromium plate. This procedureis not essential, however, and to produce desirable effects it may bedesirable to let the surface remain rough by allowing the surface of thegold plate to be somewhat below the surface of the chromium.

The main coat may be gold and the cut portions electrolytically coatedwith chromium or coatings may be used of any metals each of an elec- 3is a transverse vertical section of the fragment of Fig. 2 duringprocess of manufacture illustrating the removal of the chromium plate.Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section similar to Fig. 3 illustratingthe article in final ornamented form. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectionshowing in exaggerated enlarged form a roughened cut, and Fig. 6 is afragmentary-plan view similar to Fig. 2 illustrating another embodimentof the invention.

An article may be formed of a base metal it! which may be relativelystrong and cheap. In the drawing this is illustrated as having a flatsurface but the surface may be of any suitable form. The article iscovered preferably by electroplating with a coating H of chromium. Asmade the entire surface of the article may be covered with a coating ofchromium. Such a plain coating is illustrated at the left of Figs. 2 and3, but it will be understood that initially it extends across the entirearticle. A cutting tool such as i2 may be applied to cut lines throughthe coating ii to expose the base metal ill at suitable points. Thecutting tool may be oneratedby hand or it and/or the article may be heldand manipulated suitably by known machines which need not be furtherdescribed. In Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 the cut portion is indicated by aplurality of straight lines l3 arranged in groups leaving exposedbetween them areas of the chrome plate H. As illustrated more especiallyin Fig. 3 the cuts l3 extend not merely through the chrome plate I i butto some extent into the base metal Ill. The proportions ofthe base metaland the coatings illustrated in the drawing are much exaggerated forpurposes of clear illustration. The exact dimensions or proportions areimmaterial to the present invention. Ordinarily the chrome plate will bevery thin and to insure removing all the chrome it may be necessary ordesirable to cut into the base metal It! as illustrated. The cuttingtool 82 may be a chisel-like or lathe cutting tool of any suitable formand having any desired shape or character of cutting edge. The drawingshows a pointed cutting tool, but the shape of the tool forms no part ofthe present invention and it may have a fiat, straight cutting edge soas to eliminate some or all of the cutting lines l3. When the articlehas been brought to the condition illustrated in Fig. 3 it may have adesign cut into it which will be outlined by the chromium coating II. Inthis condition without further treatment the article may be placed intoa suitable electrolytic bath in which gold may be deposited upon thearticle. From an electrolytic bath gold will not adhere to chromium. Inas much as gold will not deposit upon the chromium plate II but willdeposit upon the exposed base metal III the gold will take the positionillustrated at M in .Fig. i overlying the cut portion i3. As illustratedin Fig. 4 the gold plate is irregular following substantially the'linesl3 and this may be a desirable arrangement.

In order to produce a duller, more difiused light reflecting effect thecuts I3 instead of being smooth may be made rough and irregular in somesuch way as illustrated, in much exaggerated form, at Na in Fig. 5. Themeans for producing such cuts are well known in the art and need not bedescribed, but may consist in general of correspondingly irregularlyshaped or dulled cutting tools corresponding to the cutting tool It.

In Fig. 1 the lines forming the base for the gold plate M areillustrated as straight and parallel. A different effect may be producedby such an arrangement of lines as illustrated in Fig. 6 where thecutting lines may be straight and parallel during a portion of theirlength as at l5. Other portions of the lines as at 66 may be curved andnot parallel but spread apart to irregular extents leaving between thelines uncut chromium portions as at H. In other portions as at i8 thelines may be closely crowded together. By suitably choosing andassociating such lines of non-uniform form an eifect of depth -or athird dimension may be produced when the ornamented surface is viewed inthe light. This effect is brought about not merely by the variation inlines but also by the contrast in color between the gold placed upon thecut portions and the chromium remaining on the uncut portions.

The specific means and results illustrated are not essential since theinvention may be embodied in numerous other forms and operations.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method of omamenting an article comprising electroplating thearticle with chromium, cutting through the chromium with a mechanicalcutter in lines beginning and ending straight and parallel but beingdifferently curved at intermediate portions, and electroplating withgold the cut lines only so as to produce an effect of varying elevation.

2. The method of ornamenting an article comprising electroplating thearticle with chromium to a smooth surface, cutting through the chromiumby means of a mechanical cutter in lines in part parallel and in suchclose contact as to remove all the chromium and in part not in paralleland so far separated as to leave chromium between them andelectroplating the cut lines only with gold.

3. The method of ornamenting an article comprising electroplating thearticle with chromium to a smooth surface, cutting through the chromiumby means of a mechanical cutter in lines in part in such close contactas to remove all the chromium and in part so far separated as to leavechromium between them and electroplating the cut lines only with gold.

4. The method of omamenting an article comprising electroplating thearticle with chromium to a smooth surface, cutting through the chromiumby means of a mechanical cutter in lines in part parallel and in partnot in parallel and electroplating the cut lines only with gold.

ALFRED F. REILLY.

